In Mundgod Now

Well, I'm in Mundgod now. The rumors of free travel for foreigners are not true as far as I've heard from this end. This may become somewhat of a problem, as my documentation is a little sketchy. I have a letter that was scanned into pdf form and then reprinted. And the letter isn't exactly permission, either. It is an aknowledgement from the office of the Dalai Lama that My permission request is in order and in process. The office assures me that this is good enough to be here now. The problem is that the Dalai Lama's office doesn't police Mundgod (although they do have legal authority), the Indians do. And the primary function of the Indian police is to extract bribes from people. Tamding got harassed on the train yesterday by Goan Customs authorities for wine he'd bought for his parents. And he did have the proper documentation for bringing wine out of Goa. It took him about 15 minutes to talk his way out of having to bribe the cops for obeying the law. So, I'm not exactly confident that I won't have any problems with the police. If they have an opening, they will pressure you really hard for money. And what are you going to do? Call the cops?

So the roads on the way to Mungod were a little better than I'd remembered. It turns out that they just repaved the roads. Not that they were smooth- this is India remember. The Dalai Lama's visit is the original cause of the paving. Not that they'd pave the roads for His Holiness. What's really going on is that some of the local Ministers of Parliment are coming to see the Dalai Lama during his visit. Now these people had appropriated money for the paving of the roads and are no doubt expecting to actually see them paved. So, there was a mad scramble to pave roads that would otherwise have not been paved in order to create the illusion that appropriating money for the paving of roads results in the paving of roads. That way, more money will be approriated. In reality, roads that the MPs aren't likely to see don't actually get paved. So, His Holiness's visit is already having a positive effect on the region.